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PRESBYTERIAN  QUARTERLY. 


NO.    6.-OCTOBER,   18  8  8. 


I.  THE  PENTATEUCHAL  STORY  OF  CREATION. 
In  the  opening  portion  of  the  Book  of  Genesis  we  have  a  his- 
tory of  creation  which  claims  to  be  a  direct  revelation  from  God. 
Geology  aims  to  give  us  a  history  of  creation  gathered  from  a  care- 
ful study  of  the  structure  of  the  earth  itself,  especially  the  study  of 
its  fossils— those  "  medals  of  creation,"  as  they  have  been  aptly 
termed— in  which  many  tilings  respecting  the  order  of  creation 
are  written  for  our  learning. 

These  two  histories  ought  to  be  in  perfect  harmony  the  one 
with  the  other.  The  books  of  revelation  and  of  nature,  where 
they  cover  the  same  ground,  ought  to  agree.  And  yet,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  and  as  these  two  records  are  often  interpreted,  so  great 
is  their  apparent  discrepancy  as  to  lead  Prof.  Huxley  to  write : 

"My  belief  is,  and  long  has  been,  that  the  Pentateuchal  story  of  creation  is 
simply  a  myth.  I  suppose  it  to  be  a  hypothesis  respecting  the  origin  of  the  uni- 
verse which  some  ancient  thinker  f  ound  himself  able  to  reconcile  with  his  know- 
ledge of  the  nature  of  things,  and  therefore  assumed  to  be  true.  As  such  I  hold  it 
to  be  not  only  an  interesting,  but  a  venerable  monument  of  a  stage  in  the  mental 
progress  of  mankind,  .  .  and  to  possess  neither  more  nor  less  scientific  importance 
than  the  cosmogonies  of  the  Egyptians  and  Babylonians. "—  Order  of  Creation, 
page  147. 

Such  discrepancies  as  are  alleged  in  this  case  are,  I  believe,  ap- 
parent, not  real,  and  may  be  owing  either  to  a  misinterpretation 
of  the  Pentateuchal  story  of  creation,  or  to  a  misreading  of  the 


346 


THE  PEE8BYTEEIAN  QUARTERLY. 


"rock-record"  by  the  geologist.  Those  to  which  Prof.  Huxley 
refers  in  the  article  from  which  the  above  quotation  is  made,  and 
on  which  he  bases  his  rejection  of  "  the  Pentateuchal  story,"  are, 
if  I  mistake  not,  owing  largely  to  his  misinterpretation  of  that 
story — a  misinterpretation  growing  out  of  his  failure  to  pay  pro- 
per attention  to  the  difference  in  character  of  the  two  histories. 

1.  Genesis  is  a  part  of  Scripture,  written  for  the  purpose  of 
teaching  the  true  religion,  and,  in  so  far  as  it  is  historical,  it  be- 
longs to  what  we  are  accustomed  to  call,  distinctively,  sacred  his- 
tory. Geology  is  a  human  science,  and  the  history  of  creation 
which  it  gives  us  originates  with  man,  is  man's  reading  of  the 
"rock-records"  of  the  earth,  and  hence  belongs  to  the  category 
of  secular  or  profane  history.  The  difference  between  these  two 
kinds  of  history  we  may  learn  by  comparing  Mosheim's  "  Ecclesi- 
astical History"  with  Gibbon's  "Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Eoman 
Empire."  They  cover  the  same  ground,  they  are  histories  of  the 
same  peoples  during  the  same  centuries,  and  hence  both  record 
many  of  the  same  events;  e.  g.,  the  conversion  of  the  Emperor 
Constantine,  and  the  removal  of  the  capital  from  Rome  to  Con- 
stantinople. But  they  have  been  written  with  different  ends  in 
view ;  the  difference  we  indicate  by  the  terms  sacred  and  secular, 
or  ecclesiastical  and  civil,  and  hence  each  very  properly  records 
events  of  which  the  other  takes  no  notice.  Mosheim  tells  us  of 
the  introduction  of  Christianity  into  Gaul  under  the  ministry  of 
Pothinus,  whilst  Gibbon  does  not  even  mention  Pothinus'  name ; 
and  Gibbon  gives  a  graphic  description  of  Julian's  night-passage 
of  the  Tigris  in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  and  his  utter  defeat  of  the 
Persians,  whilst  Mosheim  has  not  a  word  on  the  subject.  This  is 
just  as  it  ought  to  be,  and  no  one  for  a  moment  imagines  any  dis- 
crepancy between  the  two  histories  on  this  account. 

2.  A  second  fact,  which  should  never  be  lost  sight  of  in  com- 
paring the  Pentateuchal  account  of  creation  with  that  of  geology, 
is  the  exceeding  brevity  of  the  former.  Dana's  "  Geological  Story 
Briefly  Told  "  is  the  best  short  summary  of  geological  science  I  know 
of,  and  forms  a  volume  of  two  hundred  and  sixty-three  pages,  whilst 
Moses'  whole  account  of  creation  would  not  make  two  of  those 

indeed,  would  not  occupy  as  much  space  as  the  "table  of 


THE  PENTATEUCHAL  STORY  OF  CREATION.  347 

contents"  of  Dana's  book.  For  this  reason  Moses'  statements 
must  be  general  in  their  character,  avoiding  all  detail,  and  he  must 
confine  himself  rigidly  to  such  facts  as  properly  belong  to  a  sacred 
history  of  creation. 

3.  The  history  of  creation  contained  in  Genesis  claims  to  be  a 
direct  revelation  from  God — when  and  to  whom  made  we  do  not 
know — an  errorless  record  of  which  was  secured  by  the  inspiration 
of  Moses.  Now,  the  Scriptures  tell  ns  that  inspired  prophets  often 
very  imperfectly  understood  the  revelations  made  through  them. 
(1  Pet.  i.  10,  11.)  In  the  highest  sense  of  the  expression,  God 
God  and  not  the  prophet  is  the  author  of  the  communication,  not 
only  as  to  its  substance,  but  even  as  to  the  very  words  which  the 
Holy  Ghost  has  taught  him  to  use.  (1  Cor.  ii.  13.)  For  this 
reason  it  is  evidently  improper  to  make  Moses'  understanding  of 
the  record  he  was  inspired  to  write,  or  the  knowledge  of  nature 
possessed  in  Moses'  day,  our  standard  for  interpreting  this  portion 
of  Genesis,  as  some  have  seemed  disposed  to  do. 

4.  The  Scriptures  were  intended  for  all  men,  "the  common 
people"  as  well  as  scholars,  and  are  therefore  written  in  the  lan- 
guage of  common  life,  a  language  in  which  things  are  spoken  of 
as  they  appear.  The  astronomer,  in  his  intercourse  with  his  fel- 
low men,  speaks  of  the  sun's  rising  and  setting,  though  he  well 
knows  that  the  motion  of  the  sun  is  apparent,  and  not  real.  The 
physicist  speaks  of  the  dew  falling,  though  he  knows  that  each 
drop  is  formed  by  condensation  at  the  point  at  which  it  appears. 
This  peculiarity  of  the  language  of  Scripture  was  first  pointed  out 
by  Galileo,  when  defending  the  Copernican  system  of  astronomy 
against  the  charge  of  contradicting  the  plain  testimony  of  the  Word 
of  God,  and  though  controverted  for  a  time,  is  now  accepted  as 
beyond  question  by  all  thoughtful  men. 

Bearing  these  facts  in  mind,  turn  we  now  to  an  examination 
of  the  Pentateuchal  history  of  creation.  For  reasons  which  will 
appear  in  the  course  of  the  examination,  I  shall  divide  the  record 
into  three  parts,  viz.:  (1),  The  introduction  (Gen.  i.  1);  (2),  The 
history  down  to  the  creation  of  man  (Gen.  i.  2-25);  and  (3),  The 
creation  of  man,  male  and  female  (Gen.  i.  26-31,  and  ii.  1-7, 
18-25). 


348  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  QUARTERLY. 

Part  I. — The  Introduction. 

I.  "In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth." 
(Gen.  i.  1.) 

There  is  no  single  word  in  the  Hebrew  language  equivalent 
to  our  English  word  universe.  The  phrase,  "  the  heaven  and  the 
earth,"  is  the  nearest  equivalent  to  it,  and  is  here  doubtless  used 
to  signify  the  whole  material  system  of  which  our  earth  forms  a 
part ;  the  sun,  the  planets  and  their  satellites,  and  the  fixed  stars 
witli  all  that  belongs  to  them.  The  eminent  Jewish  commenta- 
tors, Aben  Ezra  and  Maimonides,  concur  with  learned  christian 
writers  in  so  understanding  it. 

The  Hebrew  word  here  rendered  "create"  does  not  always 
mean  "  to  make  out  of  nothing;"  indeed,  in  so  far  as  I  know,  there 
is  no  word  in  any  language  which  has  invariably  such  a  meaning. 
But  that  it  has  that  meaning  here  is  evident  from  the  whole  sub- 
sequent context,  as  well  as  from  the  express  teaching  of  Scripture 
in  Heb.  xi.  3 :  "  Through  faith  we  understand  that  the  worlds  were 
framed  by  the  word  of  God,  so  that  things  which  are  seen  were 
not  made  of  things  which  do  appear." 

"  In  the  beginning,"  i.  e.,  when  the  heaven  and  the  earth  be- 
gan to  exist.  Intending  to  teach  the  eternity  of  the  Word,  John 
writes,  with  evident  reference  to  the  use  of  the  expression  here, 
"In  the  beginning  was  the  Word"  (Jno.  i.  1);  L  e.,  when  the 
heaven  and  the  earth  began  to  be,  the  Word  was  already  in  ex- 
istence. 

II.  In  this  brief  introductory  declaration,  "  In  the  beginning 
God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth,"  we  are  taught:  (1),  the 
existence  of  God,  in  refutation  of  Atheism;  (2),  the  existence  of 
one,  and  but  one,  God,  in  refutation  of  Polytheism;  (3),  the  crea- 
tion of  matter  by  God,  in  refutation  of  a  common  postulate  of 
Materialism ;  and  (4),  the  existence  of  God  apart  from  and  prior 
to  the  universe  in  all  its  parts,  in  refutation  of  Pantheism.  Con- 
sidering the  Scriptures  as  the  word  of  God,  intended  to  teach  the 
true  religion,  they  contain  no  weightier  sentence  than  this,  and 
we  can  conceive  of  none  which  would  form  a  more  appropriate  in- 
troduction to  a  sacred  history  of  creation. 

III.  The  testimony  of  science,  in  so  far  as  it  is  competent  to 


THE  PENTATEUCH AL  STORY  OF  CREATION.  349 

speak  at  all  respecting  the  matter,  is  in  perfect  harmony  with  this 
declaration  of  Moses.  On  the  main  point  presented,  Prof.  Huxley 
writes : 

• '  It  appears  to  me  that  the  scientific  investigator  is  wholly  incompetent  to  say 
anything  at  all  ahout  the  first  origin  of  the  material  universe.  The  whole  power 
of  his  organon  vanishes  when  he  steps  beyond  the  chain  of  natural  causes  and 
effects."'—  Order  of  Creation,  p.  153. 

1.  That  the  universe  had  a  beginning,  however,  as  Moses  af- 
firms, science  unequivocally  testifies.     Prof.  Tait  writes: 

"All  portions  of  our  science,"  £  e.,  physics,  "and  especially  that  beautiful 
one,  the  dissipation  of  energy,  point  unanimously  to  a  beginning  ;  to  a  state  of 
things  incapable  of  being  derived  by  present  laws  of  tangible  matter  and  its  en- 
ergies from  any  conceivable  previous  arrangement. " — Recent  Advance  in  Physiad 
Science,  p.  26. 

And  Prof.  Langley,  speaking  of  the  sun,  the  great  central 
body  of  the  system  to  which  our  earth  belongs,  writes : 

"We  may  say,  with  something  like  awe  at  the  meaning  to  which  science 
points,  that  the  whole  past  of  the  sun  cannot  have  been  over  eighteen  millions  of 
years,  arid  its  whole  future  radiation  cannot  last  so  much  more.  Its  probable  life 
is  covered  by  about  thirty  million  years." — The  Century  Magazine  for  December, 
1884. 

2.  The  universe  is  not  the  product  of  chance.  Astronomy 
testifies  to  a  wonderful  order  pervading  the  universe,  mathemati- 
cal in  its  accuracy  in  so  far  as  the  bodies  astronomy  has  to  deal 
with  are  concerned.  Zoology  and  botany  testify  to  an  equally 
wonderful  order  prevailing  throughout  the  kingdom  of  organic 
nature,  a  wonderful  adaptation  of  living  creatures  to  their  en- 
vironments, and  of  the  parts  and  organs  of  these  living  creatures 
to  their  functions,  utterly  inconsistent  with  their  being  the  product 
of  chance.  Kespecting  the  very  atoms  of  which  all  bodies  are  be- 
lieved to  be  made  up,  Sir  John  Herschel  remarks :  "  They  possess 
all  the  characteristics  of  manufactured  articles." 

Part  II. — The  History  Down  to  the  Creation  of  Man. 

In  his  history  Moses  divides  the  time  occupied  by  God  in  his 
work  of  creation  into  days.  Before  entering  upon  the  particular 
examination  of  the  portion  of  the  history  now  before  us,  let  us 
fix,  if  we  can,  the  sense  in  which  he  uses  that  word. 


350  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  QUARTERLY. 

The  Imperial  Dictionary  gives  us,  as  definitions  of  the  English 
word  day :  (1),  That  part  of  the  time  of  the  earth's  revolution  on  its 
axis  in  which  its  surface  is  presented  to  the  sun  ;  (2),  the  whole  time 
or  period  of  one  revolution  of  the  earth  on  its  axis,  or  twenty -four 
hours,  called  the  natural  day ;  (3),  time  specified  ;  any  period  of  time 
distinguished  from  other  time ;  age.  The  Hebrew  word  QV  here 
rendered  day,  is  used  in  Scripture  in  all  three  of  these  senses.  In- 
stances of  its  use  in  the  last- mentioned  sense  we  have  in  Ps.  xcv. 
8-10 :  "  As  in  the  day  of  temptation  in  the  wilderness:  when  your 
fathers  tempted  me,  proved  me,  and  saw  my  work.  Forty  years 
long  was  I  grieved  with  this  generation," — where  "  the  day  "  was  a 
period  of  forty  years,  characterized  by  Israel's  temptation  of  God  ; 
.and  in  Zechariah  xiii.  1 :  "  In  that  day  there  shall  be  a  fountain 
opened  to  the  house  of  David  and  to  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem, 
for  sin  and  for  uncleanness," — where  "that  day"  covers  the  whole 
period  of  the  christian  dispensation,  characterized  b}7  the  free  offer 
of  salvation  made  to  all  men.  And  in  this  very  account  of  crea- 
tion, Moses  unquestionably  uses  it  in  this  sense  when  he  writes : 
"  These  are  the  generations  of  the  heavens  and  of  the  earth  when 
they  were  created,  in  the  day  that  the  Lord  God  made  the  earth 
and  the  heavens"  (Gen.  ii.  4),  where  "the  day"  covers  the  whole 
period  occupied  by  God  in  his  work  of  creation,  the  whole  age  or 
era  of  creation,  previously  spoken  of  as  made  up  of  six  days. 

In  attempting  to  determine  in  which  of  the  two  last-mentioned 
senses,  for  the  record  itself  excludes  the  first-mentioned,  excepting 
in  verse  5,  "And  God  called  the  light  Day,  and  the  darkness  he 
called  Night,"  Moses  uses  the  word  when  he  writes,  "  And  there 
was  evening  and  there  was  morning,  one  day — a  second  day," 
etc.,  I  would  ask  the  reader's  attention  to  the  following  consid- 
erations : 

1.  If  by  age  or  era  we  mean  a  portion  of  time  distinguishable 
from  other  time  by  something  characteristic  of  it,  and  this  is  the 
sense  in  which  geologists  use  these  terms  when  they  speak  of  "  the 
age  of  mammals,"  "  the  carboniferous  era,"  then  Moses"  days,  what- 
ever may  have  been  their  length,  were  ages  or  eras  in  the  proper 
sense  of  those  terms,  as  every  one  of  them  is  characterized  by  some 
peculiar  work. 


THE  PENTATEUCHAL  STORY  OF  CREATION.  351 

2.  Failing  to  take  proper  account  of  the  poetical  character  of 
David's  words,  "  For  he  spake  and  it  was  done ;  he  commanded  and 
it  stood  fast "  (Ps.  xxxiii.  9),  and  conceiving  of  creation  as  an  in- 
stantaneous act,  as  the  older  commentators  did,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  they,  without  exception,  understood  the  word  day  to  mean  a 
period  of  twenty-four  hours.  But,  conceiving  of  the  creation  of 
which  Moses  tells  us  as  a  work,  made  up  of  many  acts,  and  extend- 
ing over  six  days,  whatever  the  length  of  those  days  may  have 
been,  and  considering  the  stupendous  character  of  that  work — 
nothing  less  than  the  creation  of  a  world — it  seems  to  me  more 
reasonable  to  understand  the  days  he  speaks  of  to  be  periods  of 
longer  duration  than  twenty-four  hours. 

3.  The  creation-work  of  God  on  the  sixth  day,  as  given  us  in 
Gen.  i.  24-28,  was  two-fold;  (1),  causing  "the  earth  to  bring  forth 
the  living  creature  after  his  kind,  cattle  and  creeping  thing  and 
beast  of  the  earth  after  his  kind ;"  and  (2),  "  making  man,  male  and 
female,  in  his  own  image."  In  Gen.  ii.  7-25,  there  is  a  more  par- 
ticular acccount  of  the  last-mentioned  of  these  works;  in  which 
we  are  told,  (1),  of  the  making  of  man,  as  to  his  body,  out  of  the 
dust  of  the  ground,  and  then  breathing  into  his  nostrils  the  breath 
of  life;  (2),  of  God's  planting  a  garden  in  Eden,  and  causing  to 
grow  out  of  the  ground  every  tree  that  is  pleasant  to  the  sight  and 
good  for  food,  and  then  placing  man  therein  to  dress  it  and  keep  it; 
(3),  of  his  entering  into  a  covenant  of  life  with  man  on  condition 
of  perfect  obedience;  (4),  of  his  bringing  every  beast  of  the  field 
and  fowl  of  the  air  to  Adam  that  he  might  name  them ;  and  when 
there  was  found  no  "  help  meet  for  him "  among  them  all,  (5),  of 
his  causing  a  deep  sleep  to  fall  upon  Adam,  and  as  he  slept,  of  his 
taking  one  of  his  ribs  which  he  made  a  woman,  and  bringing  her 
to  the  man,  instituting  the  marriage  relation  between  them.  Now, 
it  cannot  be  denied  that  all  these  things  might  have  been  done  in 
the  latter  half  of  a  day  of  twenty -four  hours ;  but  we  get,  I  think, 
a  far  more  natural  interpretation  if  we  understand  the  sixth  day 
to  have  been  a  longer  period  than  that.    • 

4.  The  seventh  day  is  characterized  (1)  by  God's  "resting  from 
all  his  work  which  he  created  and  made,"  and  (2)  by  God's  "bless- 
ing the  day  and  sanctifying  it."     The  rest  here  spoken  of  is  simply 


352  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  QUARTERLY. 

rest  from  his  work  of  creation,  not  rest  from  all  activity ;  for  his 
work  of  providence,  i.  e.,  "his  preserving  and  governing  all  his 
creatures  and  all  their  actions  "  is  as  truly  a  work  of  God  as  crea- 
tion is;  and  this  certainly  continues  to  the  present  day.  Of  his 
work  of  providence  our  Lord  said,  "My  Father  worketh  hitherto, 
and  I  work."  (John  v.  17.)  Of  God's  "blessing  the  day  and 
sanctifying,  hallowing  it,"  I  remark,  understanding  the  seventh  day 
to  be  our  present  age,  beginning  with  the  creation  of  man  and 
stretching  on  to  the  "  day  of  judgment,"  God  has  unquestionably 
blessed  and  hallowed  it,  in  the  only  sense  in  which  time  can  be 
said  to  be  hallowed,  by  the  greatest  of  all  his  works,  his  work  of 
redemption,  and  his  "holy,  wise,  and  powerful"  work  of  provi- 
idence  subservient  thereto.  In  the  fourth  commandment,  God's 
example  in  "hallowing"  the  seventh  day  is  held  up  to  enforce  a 
similar  course  of  conduct  on  the  part  of  man.  The  force  and  perti- 
nency of  this  example  do  not  depend  upon  the  length  of  the  day, 
but  upon  its  relation  to  other  days.  It  is  not. as  the  seventh  day, 
but  as  the  seventh  day,  it  furnishes  us  an  example.  For  man  it  may 
well  be  a  period  of  twenty-four  hours,  whilst  for  God,  to  whom 
"a  thousand  years  are  as  one  day,  and  one  day  as  a  thousand 
years,"  (2  Peter  iii.  8,)  it  is  an  age  or  era. 

5.  It  is  worthy  of  particular  remark,  that  in  Moses'  history  the 
record  of  each  of  the  first  six  days  closes  with  the  words,  "and 
there  was  evening  and  there  was  morning,  one  day — a  second  day, 
a  third  day,"  etc.,  whilst  in  the  case  of  the  seventh  day  there  is  no 
such  record.  From  this  it  would  seem  that  the  seventh  day  had 
not  yet  closed  when  Moses  wrote.  If  the  days  of  creation  were 
days  of  twenty-four  hours,  the  seventh  day  must  have  closed  long 
before  that  time;  but  if  we  understand  them  to  be  eras  or  ages, 
the  seventh  of  these  ages  characterized  by  God's  resting  from  his 
work  of  creation,  and  hallowing  the  age  by  his  greater  work  of  re- 
demption, the  day  has  not  yet  come  to  a  close.  That  God  will 
eventually  resume  his  work  of  creation,  and  John's  vision  be  re- 
alized, the  vision  in  which  he  "saw  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth  ; 
for  the  first  heaven  and  the  first  earth  were  passed  away,"  (Rev. 
xxi.  1,)  I  have  no  doubt;  and  that  God's  great  work  of  redemption 
will  have  been  completed  when  this  shall  occur,  I  think  the  Scrip- 


THE  PENTATETJCHAL  STORY  OF  CREATION.  353 

tures  clearly  teach  us.  If  this  be  so,  then,  and  not  till  then,  will 
the  seventh  day  come  to  a  close,  and  the  record  be  made,  "and 
there  was  evening  and  there  was  morning,"  a  seventh  day. 

For  all  these  reasons,  reasons  which  present  themselves  on  a 
careful  examination  of  the  record,  my  conclusion  is  that  the  word 
day  in  Moses'  history  of  creation  is  to  be  understood  in  the  sense 
of  an  age  or  era — a  long  period  of  time,  how  long  I  cannot  pre- 
tend to  say,  distinguished  from  other  time  by  something  charac- 
teristic of  it.  The  geologist,  giving  us  the  history  of  creation  as 
he  has  learned  it  from  the  study  of  the  rock-records  of  the  earth, 
divides  that  history  into  eras  in  no  way  discrepant  with  those  so 
distinctly  marked  in  the  Pentateuchal  story. 

I.  Turning  now  to  a  particular  examination  of  the  portion  of 
Moses'  history  1  have  designated  as  Part  II.,  I  shall  make  use  of  the 
New  Version,  as  confessedly  more  accurate  than  the  old. 

1.  "And  the  earth  was  waste  and  void;  and  darkness  was  upon 
the  face  of  the  deep ;  and  the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  [was  brood- 
ing upon,  marginal]  the  face  of  the  waters.  And  God  said,  Let  there 
be  light:  and  there  was  light.  And  God  saw  the  light  that  it  was 
good;  and  God  divided  the  light  from  the  darkness.  And  God 
called  the  light  day,  and  the  darkness  he  called  night.  And  there 
was  evening  and  there  was  morning,  one  day."     (Ys.  2-5.) 

We  have  here  the  earth — not  the  universe,  but  the  earth  "  indi- 
vidualized," to  use  the  language  of  science — in  a  chaotic  condition, 
in  darkness,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  brooding  upon  this  chaos,  i.  e., 
beginning  to  evoke  organization  and  life  in  the  mass ;  as  a  fowl,  by 
brooding  upon  her  eggs,  accomplishes  that  result.  Then,  God  is 
represented  as  saying,  "Let  there  be  light."  It  is  not  said  that 
then  God  made  or  created  light,  but  that  he  said,  "  Let  there  be 
light,"  i.  e.,  let  light  be,  visibly,  sensibly.  And  he  "divided  the 
light  from  the  darkness."  The  introduction  of  light  upon  the  hith- 
erto dark  surface  of  the  chaotic  earth,  and  that  in  such  a  way  that 
day  and  night  should  alternate  with  one  another,  is  the  character- 
istic work  of  the  first  day. 

2.  "And  God  said,  Let  there  be  a  firmament  [expanse,  margi- 
nal] in  the  midst  of  the  waters,  and  let  it  divide  the  waters  from 
the  waters.     And  God  made  the  firmament,  and  divided  the  wa- 


354  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  QUARTERLY. 

ters  which  were  under  the  firmament  from  the  waters  which  were 
above  the  firmament;  and  it  was  so.  And  God  called  the  firma- 
ment heaven.  And  there  was  evening  and  there  was  morning,  a 
second  day."     (Vs.  6-8.) 

The  translation  of  the  Hebrew  ^p"l  here  by  the  English  word 
firmament  is  now  universally  admitted  to  be  an  erroneous  transla- 
tion. It  is  copied  from  the  Septuagint  arepecofxa,  and  the  V\i\- 
g&te  Jlrmamentum,  both  of  which  words  convey  the  idea  of  some- 
thing solid.  This  is  probably  one  of  those  errors  of  translation 
which  must  be  traced  to  the  mistaken  science  of  the  day  when  the 
Septuagint  and  Vulgate  versions  were  made;  a  science  which 
taught  that  the  heavenly  bodies  were  all  fixed  in  crystal  spheres. 
The  proper  translation  is  that  given  in  the  margin  of  the  New 
Version,  "  expanse."  God's  separating  between  the  waters  on  the 
surface  of  the  earth  and  those  suspended  in  the  upper  air,  separating 
the  one  from  the  other  just  as  the  clouds  are  separated  from  the  ocean 
and  seas,  by  a  clear  expanse,  was  the  characteristic  work  of  the 
second  day. 

3.  "  And  God  said.  Let  the  waters  under  the  heaven  be  gathered 
together  unto  one  place,  and  let  the  dry  land  appear  ;  and  it  was  so. 
And  God  called  the  dry  land  earth ;  and  the  gathering  together  of 
the  waters  called  he  seas.  And  God  saw  that  it  was  good.  And 
God  said,  Let  the  earth  put  forth  grass,  herb  yielding  seed,  and 
fruit  tree  bearing  fruit  after  its  kind,  wherein  is  the  seed  thereof, 
upon  the  earth ;  and  it  was  so.  And  the  earth  brought  forth  grass, 
herb  yielding  seed  after  its  kind,  and  tree  bearing  fruit,  wherein  is 
the  seed  thereof,  after  its  kind;  and  God  saw  that  it  was  good. 
And  there  was  evening  and  there  was  morning,  a  third  day." 
(Vs.  9-13.) 

The  work  characteristic  of  the  third  day  was:  (1,)  God's  caus- 
ing the  dry  land  to  emerge  from  the  waters,  which  up  to  this  time 
had  covered  the  whole  surface  of  the  earth,  and  then  (2,)  causing 
the  earth  to  put  forth  grass,  herbs,  and  trees;  i.  e.,  plants  of  the 
three  great  classes  in  which  the  ancients  arranged  terrestrial  vege- 
tation. Dr.  Clarke,  in  his  comments  on  this  passage,  remarks : 
"Fruit-trees  are  not  to  be  understood  here  in  the  restricted  sense 
in  which  the  term  is  used  among  us;  it  signifies  all  trees,  not  only 


THE   PENTATEUCH AL  STORY  OF  CREATION.  355 

those  which  bear  fruit  which  may  be  applied  to  the  use  of  men 
and  cattle,  but  also  those  wrhich  had  the  power  of  propagating 
themselves  by  seed."  In  Ezekiel  xvii.  23,  the  cedar  is  mentioned 
as  a  fruit-bearing  tree.  From  the  fact  that  God  is  here  repre- 
sented as  addressing  his  command  to  the  earth — the  earth  as  a 
whole,  and  not  to  some  particular  part  of  it — it  seems  fair  to  in- 
fer that  this  original  vegetable  covering  of  the  land  was  an  abun- 
dant one ;  the  era,  an  era  of  luxuriant  vegetation.  Here,  as  Prof. 
Huxley  has  pointed  out,  Moses  speaks  of  land-plants  alone.  Nei- 
ther here  nor  elsewhere  does  he  say  a  word  about  algae,  the  vege- 
tation peculiar  to  the  sea.  These  may  have  been  made  long  before 
this,  while  the  waters  yet  covered  the  whole  surface  of  the  earth ; 
and,  if  geological  research  should  prove  that  such  was  the  fact,  no 
discrepancy  with  Moses'  history  of  creation  would  be  established 
thereby. 

4.  "And  God  said,  Let  there  be  lights  in  the  firmament  of  the 
heaven  to  divide  the  day  from  the  night ;  and  let  them  be  for 
signs,  and  for  seasons,  and  for  days  and  years ;  and  let  them  be  for 
lights  in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven  to  give  light  upon  the  earth ; 
and  it  was  so.  And  God  made  the  two  great  lights;  the  greater 
light  to  rule  the  day,  and  the  lesser  light  to  rule  the  night;  he 
made  the  stars  also.  And  God  set  them  in  the  firmament  of  the 
heaven  to  give  light  upon  the  earth,  and  to  rule  over  the  day  and 
over  the  night,  and  to  divide  the  light  from  the  darkness;  and 
God  saw  that  it  was  good.  And  there  was  evening  and  there  was 
morning,  a  fourth  day."     (Vs.  14—19.) 

The  characteristic  work  of  the  fourth  day  is  God's  causing  the 
sun,  moon  and  stars  to  be,  i.  e.,  visibly,  sensibly  to  be,  in  the 
heavens,  and  to  begin  their  appointed  task  of  ruling  over  the  day 
and  the  night ;  causing  the  change  in  the  seasons,  and  marking  the 
passage  of  days  and  years.  Moses  does  not  say  that  God  created 
the  sun,  moon  and  stars  on  this  fourth  day.  He  has  already  said 
in  verse  1 :  "  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the 
earth,"  which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  the  record  of  their  creation; 
but,  using  the  language  of  common  life,  which  speaks  of  things 
as  they  appear  to  the  senses,  he  says,  "Let  there  be  lights  in 
the   firmament    of    the    heaven,"    i.    e.,    let    them    now    appear, 


356  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  QUARTERLY. 

"and  let  them   be  for  signs  and  for  seasons,  and  for  days  and 
years." 

5.  "And  God  said,  Let  the  waters  bring  forth  abundantly 
[swarm  with  swarms,  marginal]  the  moving  creature  that  hath  life, 
and  let  fowl  fly  above  the  earth  in  the  open  firmament  of  heaven. 
And  God  created  the  great  sea-monsters,  and  every  living  creature 
that  moveth,  which  the  waters  brought  forth  abundantly,  after  their 
kinds,  and  every  winged  fowl  after  its  kind  ;  and  God  saw  that  it 
•was  good.  And  God  blessed  them,  saying,  Be  fruitful,  and  mul- 
tiply, and  fill  the  waters  in  the  seas,  and  let  fowl  multiply  in  the 
earth.  And  there  was  evening  and  there  was  morning,  a  fifth  day." 
(Vs.  20-23.) 

The  Hebrew  P)fy,  here  rendered  fowl,  means  literally  "flyers," 
and  is  of  much  wider  signification  than  our  English  word  fowl, 
and  includes  insects,  e.  g.,  the  locust,  and  flying  mammals,  e.  g., 
the  bat.  (Lev.  xi.  19,  20.)  Moses  does  not  say  that  God  first 
created  these  sea-creatures  and  flyers  on  this  fifth  day.  Indeed, 
his  language,  "  Let  the  waters  swarm  with  swarms1'  of  them,  would 
suggest  the  idea  that  they  were  first  created  long  before.  What 
he  does  say,  and  all  that  he  says  when  his  language  is  strictly  con- 
strued, is  that  on  this  fifth  day  there  was  a  wonderful  development 
of  this  portion  of  the  animal  kingdom.  Should  geological  research 
establish  the  fact,  as  I  think  it  has  already  done,  that  there 
were  fishes  and  flyers  long  before  this,  there  would  be  no  discre- 
pancy between  Moses'  account  and  geology  established  thereby. 
What  Moses  affirms  respecting  the  fifth  day  is,  that  the  character- 
istic feature  of  the  creation-work  of  the  day  was  a  grand  develop- 
ment of  these  classes  of  creatures ;  that  the  era  was,  emphatically, 
the  era  of  great  sea-monsters  and  flyers. 

6.  "And  God  said,  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  the  living  crea- 
ture after  its  kind,  cattle  and  creeping  thing,  and  beast  of  the  earth 
after  its  kind ;  and  it  was  so.  And  God  made  the  beast  of  the 
earth  after  its  kind,  and  the  cattle  after  their  kind,  and  everything 
that  creepeth  upon  the  ground  after  its  kind ;  and  God  saw  that 
it  was  good"  (vs.  24,  25).  Then  follows  an  account  of  the  crea- 
tion of  man,  a  work  of  this  sixth  day  also. 

When  Moses  writes,  "And  God  said,  Let  the  earth  bring  forth 


THE  PENTATEUCHAL  STORY  OF  CREATION.  357 

the  living  creature  after  its  kind,  cattle  and  creeping  thing,  and 
beast  of  the  earth  after  its  kind,"  for  reasons  already  given  in 
studying  the  record  of  God's  work  on  the  third  and  fifth  days,  I 
understand  him  to  teach  simply  that  the  sixth  day  was  character- 
ized by  a  special  development  of  the  classes  of  cattle,  creeping 
things  and  wild  beasts.  The  "creeping  things"  here  mentioned 
are  not  reptiles,  as  the  English  reader  would  naturally  suppose, 
but,  "as  they  are  grouped  with  the  larger  herbiverous  cattle  and 
the  larger  beasts  of  prey,  it  is  probable  that  the  term  refers  to  the 
class  of  smaller  land  animals  whose  bodies  are  brought  by  means  of 
short  legs  into  close  proximity  to  the  earth." — Bush  on  Genesis. 
In  Leviticus  xi.  29,  the  weasel  and  the  mouse  are  particularly 
mentioned  as  creeping  things.  If  so,  the  three  classes  of  animals 
here  spoken  of  were  all  mammals,  and  this  first  part  of  the  sixth 
day  was,  in  the  language  of  science,  the  age  of  mammals ;  and  this 
Moses  tells  us  immediately  preceded  the  creation  of  man. 

II.  All  these  facts,  thus  stated  by  Moses,  properly  belong  to  a 
sacred  history  of  creation ;  and  the  importance  of  the  religious 
lessons  they  teach  is  abundantly  illustrated  in  the  subsequent  his- 
tory of  our  race.  With  the  mass  of  mankind,  idolatry  is  the  form 
of  false  religion  which  has  most  widely  supplanted  the  true. 

1.  In  its  earliest,  purest  condition,  idolatry  took  the  form  of 
a  worship  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  especially  of  the  sun  and  moon. 
To  guard  man  against  such  idolatry  as  this,  Moses  tell  us  that  all 
these  heavenly  bodies  are  the  work  of  God's  hands,  and  have  been 
set  by  him  in  the  heavens  to  give  light  upon  the  earth,  to  effect 
the  change  in  the  seasons  and  to  mark  the  passage  of  time,  not  to 
be  worshipped.  Like  man  himself  they  are  all  God's  creatures; 
man's  ministers,  not  his  lords. 

2.  A  grosser  form  of  idolatry,  which  has  always  succeeded 
the  purer,  is  that  in  which  man  takes  as  his  gods  sea-monsters  and 
birds  of  the  air  and  beasts  of  the  field.  The  crocodile,  the  ibis 
and  the  ox  were  all  worshipped  by  the  Egyptians,  the  most  highly 
civilized  nation  on  the  face  of  the  earth  in  Moses'  day. 

3.  A  still  lower  form  of  idolatry  is  that  reproved  by  Isaiah 
in  his  words:  "He  heweth  him  down  cedars,  and  taketh  the 
cypress  and  the  oak He  burnetii  part  thereof  in  the  fire ; 


358  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  QUARTERLY. 

with  part  thereof  he  eateth  flesh ;  he  roasteth  roast,  and  is  satis- 
fied; yea,  he  warmeth  himself  and  saith,  Aha,  I  am  warm,  I  have 
seen  the  fire.  And  the  residue  thereof  he  maketh  a  god,  even  his 
graven  image.  He  falleth  down  unto  it,  and  prayeth  unto  it,  and 
saith,  Deliver  me,  for  thon  art  my  god."  (Isa.  xliv.  16,  10.)  All 
this  must  have  been  known  unto  the  God  of  Moses  whose  revela- 
tion this  history  of  creation  is;  and  intending  it  to  furnish  a  refu- 
tation of  idolatry  in  all  its  forms,  it  tells  of  God's  creation  of  the 
cedar,  the  cypress  and  the  oak;  the  sea-monsters,  the  birds  and  the 
beasts;  and  further,  it  tells  us  that  when  God  made  man  in  his 
own  image,  he  gave  him  "dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea, 
and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  every  living  thing  that 
moveth  upon  the  earth."  God  made  man  their  master,  not  them 
his. 

A  further  religious  use  of  this  narrative  is  well  expressed  in 
the  words  of  Hon.  Mr.  Gladstone : 

' '  For  the  Adaniic  race,  recent  on  the  earth,  and  young  in  facilities,  it  has  a 
natural  and  highly  moral  purpose  in  conveying  to  their  minds  a  lively  sense  of  the 
wise  and  loving  care  with  which  the  Almighty  Father,  who  demanded  much  at  their 
hands,  had  beforehand  given  them  much,  in  the  providential  adaptation  of  the 
world  to  be  their  dwelling-place,  and  of  the  created  orders  to  their  use  and  rule." 
■ — Order  of  Creation,  p.  83. 

Calling  to  mind  the  principle  already  laid  down,  that  the  Scrip- 
tures, being  inspired  of  God,  often  use  "'  words  and  phrases  which, 
without  suggesting  puzzling  enigmas,  yet  contain  in  themselves 
ample  space  for  the  demands  of  growing  human  knowledge,"  let 
the  reader  turn  to  Moses'  record  of  God's  work  on  the  third  day ; 
his  calling  forth  from  the  earth  a  wonderfully  abundant  vegeta- 
tion— the  carboniferous  era  of  the  geologist,  as  we  must  regard 
it — and  he  will  see  how  appropriate  such  a  record  is  to  a  sacred 
history  of  creation,  if  such  record  is  intended  to  awaken  in  man 
gratitude  to  God  his  Creator.  How  clearly  God's  fatherly  care 
for  man  appears  in  the  fact  that  long  ages  before  man  was  ready 
to  use  it,  he  laid  up  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth  the  immense  de- 
posits of  coal,  now  first  beginning  to  be  utilized,  and  so  important 
a  factor  in  our  modern  civilization. 

III.  Turn  we  now  to  an  examination  of  the  question,  Is  there 
any  discrepancy  between  the  statements  of  this  sacred  history  of 


THE  PENTATEUCIIAL  STORY  OF  CREATION. 


359 


creation,  and  the  secular  or  profane  history  which  the  geologist 
has  learned  from  his  study  of  the  "rock-records"  of  the  earth? 

This  second  part  of  the  Mosaic  record  covers  the  same  ground 
with  geology.  Both  relate  events  belonging  to  the  same  period 
of  the  earth's  history ;  though,  because  of  the  different  purposes 
with  which  they  have  been  written,  not  necessarily  all  the  same 
events.  In  general,  the  two  records  are  obviously  in  harmony. 
More  especially  is  this  the  case  in  so  far  as  organic  nature  is  con- 
cerned; and  it  is  just  here  that  geological  science  is  most  certain 
of  its  facts  and  most  thoroughly  established  in  its  propositions. 
But,  passing  from  this  general  to  a  more  particular  examination 
of  the  Mosaic  record,  I  ask  the  reader's  attention  to  the  following 
facts,  viz. : 

1 .  After  stating  that  "  in  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven 
and  the  earth,"  Moses  tells  us,  in  verse  2,  that  "  the  earth  was  waste 
and  void,  and  darkness  was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep."     This 
chaotic  condition  was  that  of  the  earth  when  God  began  the  work 
described  in  the  subsequent  portions  of  this  history.     Whether  it  I 
was  its  condition  when  first  brought  into  being,  or  long  ages  inter-  \ 
vened  between  "the  beginning"  of  verse  1,  and  the  condition  of 
things  described  in  verse  2,  Moses  does  not  tell  us.     Basil,  Origen,  J 
Theodoret  and  Augustine  believed   that  ages  come  in  between, 
verses  1  and  2,  of  which  Moses  says  not  a  word.     Should  the  neb- 
ular hypothesis,  now  in  favor  with  many  scientists,  come  to  be  es- 
tablished as  scientific  truth,  there  would  be  nothing  in  this  at  vari- 
ance with  Moses'  history.    The  period  which  this  hypothesis  covers 
would  be  the  period  which  comes  in  between  verses  1  and  2.     In 
verse  2,  Moses  begins  with  the  earth  completely  "  individualized," 
and  no  longer  a  part  of  any  nebula. 

2.  The  word  chaos  has  long  been  in  use  among  geologists,  but 
with  a  very  indefinite  meaning.  Kecent  discoveries,  embodied  in 
what  is  popularly  styled  "the  New  Astronomy,"  now,  for  the  first 
time,  enable  us  to  understand  what  the  true  nature  of  chaos  is. 
The  sun  and  moon  are  bodies  belonging  to  the  same  system  with 
our  earth,  and  the  spectroscope  has  disclosed  to  us  the  fact  that  the 
sun,  at  least,  is  made  up  very  much  of  the  same  elementary  sub- 
stances as  the  earth;  and  further,  by  means  of  the  spectroscope 
and  improved  telescope,  we  learn  that  the  sun  is  now  in  a  condition 


360  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  QUARTERLY. 

of  chaos  through  the  operation  of  intense  heat.  The  earth  bears 
many  unmistakable  marks  of  having  once  been  in  the  condition  in 
which  the  sun  now  is.  And  the  moon  also,  according  to  the  "  New 
Astronomy,"  was  once  in  this  same  condition.  The  sun,  because 
of  its  immense  mass — more  than  a  million  of  times  that  of  the 
earth — has  thus  far  cooled  comparatively  little,  although  constantly 
radiating  its  heat  into  space.  The  moon,  many  thousand  times 
smaller  than  the  earth,  has  become  completely  solidified  by  cool- 
ing; whilst  the  earth,  intermediate  in  mass  between  the  sun  and 
moon,  occupies  an  intermediate  position  in  temperature  also.  Tak- 
ing now  the  present  chaotic  condition  of  the  sun  as  the  type  of 
what  was  once  the  condition  of  the  earth,  we  can  attach  a  definite 
meaning  to  the  word  chaos  as  used  by  the  geologist. 

3.  According  to  the  "  New  Astronomy,"  the  sun  consists  of  (1,)  a 
solid  or  quasi-solid  central  mass,  intensely  heated,  but  kept  in  a  solid 
state  by  the  immense  pressure  of  its  atmosphere ;  (2,)  an  atmosphere, 
many  thousands  of  miles  in  thickness,  composed  largely  of  vapor- 
ized iron,  zinc,  calcium  and  other  metals.  This  atmosphere  is  com- 
monly spoken  of  as  the  sun's  photosphere,  because  the  immediate 
source  of  the  light  it  sends  to  the  earth ;  and  (3,)  what  is  called  the 
chromosphere,  a  kind  of  second  atmosphere,  consisting  entirely  of 
free  hydrogen,  thousands  of  miles  in  thickness,  and  often  shooting 
out  mountain  masses  on  its  surface  to  an  immense  distance.  All 
this  has  been  learned  by  direct  observation.  These  are  facts  of 
science,  and  not  mere  hypotheses.  Through  spectroscopic  analysis 
I  know  that  vaporized  iron  enters  largely  into  the  composition  of 
the  sun's  atmosphere,  as  certainly  as  I  do,  through  ordinary  chem- 
ical analysis,  that  oxygen  enters  into  the  composition  of  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  earth. 

4.  Starting  with  the  earth  in  the  condition  in  which  the  sun  now 
is,  what  must  be  the  series  of  changes  it  will  undergo  as  it  cools  ? 
according  to  the  well  ascertained  physical  laws  which  govern  all 
such  cooling  bodies?  The  first  effect  of  cooling  would  be  the  pre- 
cipitation of  the  vaporized  metals  and  other  heavy  bodies  upon  its 
solid  surface,  and  this  in  the  condition  of  oxides,  where  the  metal 
had  such  an  affinity  for  oxygen,  as  iron  and  calcium  have ;  and 
then,  the  disappearance  of  the  chromosphere,  through  the  combi- 
nation of  its  hydrogen  with  oxygen  in  the  formation  of  water.    At 


THE  PENTATEDCHAL  STOKV  OF  CREATION.  361 

first,  this  water  would  be  in  the  condition  of  vapor;  and  our  earth 
would  present  the  appearance  of  a  solid  sphere  wrapped  in  an  im- 
mense cloud  of  watery  vapor.  This,  if  I  mistake  not,  was  just  the 
condition  of  our  earth  when  Moses  resumes  his  narrative  in  the 
words,  "And  the  earth  was  waste  and  void,"  i.  e.,  without  living 
plant  or  animal  of  any  kind  upon  it,  "and  darkness  was  upon  the 
face  of  the  deep."  (1.)  As  the  cooling  proceeded,  the  dense  mass- 
of  vapor  would  thin  out,  so  that  it  would  be  possible  for  light  from 
the  sun  to  penetrate  to  the  more  solid  mass;  and,  in  consequence 
of  the  revolution  of  the  earth  upon  its  axis,  along  with  the  entrance 
of  light  would  come  the  alternation  of  day  and  night,  as  Moses 
describes  it  in  verses  4,  5.  (2.)  To  this  would  succeed,  as  the  cool- 
ing went  on,  a  condensation  of  a  portion  of  the  watery  vapor  in  a 
liquid  form  upon  the  surface  of  the  solid  central  mass,  and  a  sepa- 
ration between  it  and  the  portion  which  would  still  remain  sus- 
pended above  it,  just  such  a  separation  as  now  exists,  and  as  Moses 
describes  in  verses  6-8.  (3.)  Then,  as  the  cooling  proceeded  yet 
further,  because  of  the  contraction  of  the  solidified  crust  of  the 
earth,  more  rapidly  than  of  the  heated  mass  within,  that  crust 
would  be  rent  and  upheaved,  so  that  the  land  would  emerge  from 
beneath  the  waters,  and  a  division  between  the  dry  land  and  the 
sea  would  be  effected.  (See  verses  9,  10.)  After  this,  and  not 
until  then,  would  the  sun,  moon  and  stars  appear  in  the  heavens, 
and  begin  their  work  of  distinctly  marking  the  passage  of  days 
and  years,  as  stated  in  verses  14-19. 

5.  Of  organic  nature,  Moses  tells  us,  that  there  was,  first,  a 
great  outburst  of  vegetable  life  on  the  earth,  a  gigantic  growth  of 
land  plants;  and  that  this  gigantic  vegetation  followed  immediately 
upon,  and  was  in  part  cotemporary  with,  the  separation  of  land  and 
water;  for  so  I  understand  his  representing  these  two  works  as 
both  occurring  on  the  same  creative  day.  Then,  second,  that  God 
caused  the  waters  to  swarm  with  swarms  of  sea  monsters,  and  the 
air  with  birds  (flyers);  and,  after  this  of  an  outburst  of  mammal 
life  upon  the  land,  "of  cattle,  and  wild  beasts  and  creeping  things." 
Now,  what  are  these  three  eras  in  the  creation  of  organic  nature 
but  "  the  carboniferous  era,"  the  age  of  gigantic  sauria  and  mon- 
strous birds  (flyers),  including  the  pterodactyles,  and  the  age  of 
mammals,  of  the  geologist.     In  Moses'  record  these  ages  are  the 

2 


362  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  QUARTERLY. 

same  in  number,  and  they  occur  in  the  same  order  they  do  in  the 
record  of  geology. 

6.  On  one  point  which  the  Mosaic  record  decides  definitely, 
geology  does  not  give  so  decided  an  answer,  viz.:  that  the  car- 
boniferous era  preceded  the  distinct  appearance  of  the  sun  in  the 
heavens.  And  yet,  all  that  geology  does  say  is  favorable  to  Moses' 
decision.  The  leading  classes  of  plants  which  make  up  the  mass 
of  the  coal  of  the  carboniferous  era  are  mosses,  ferns  and  gigantic 
lepidodendra,  plants  which  to-day  flourish  in  a  damp  atmosphere 
and  in  the  shade,  and  are  dwarfed,  if  not  killed,  by  direct  sunshine. 
And  in  addition  to  this,  the  numerous  seams  of  coal,  separated  by 
seams  of  slate,  and  even  sandstone,  in  these  older  coal-fields,  tell 
of  frequent  subsidence  and  emergence  of  the  land  during  their 
formation :  just  the  condition  of  things  we  would  expect  to  find, 
when  the  land  was  being  separated  from  the  water. 

7.  That  the  warm  waters  of  the  primeval  ocean,  before  the 
land  emerged,  contained  algse  (sea- weeds),  and  some  of  the  lower 
forms  of  animals,  e.  g.,  the  eozoon,  polyps  and  radiates,  is,  I  think, 
pretty  clearly  established.  That  there  were  certain  kinds  of  fish 
in  the  sea,  and  flyers  such  as  insects  in  the  air,  before  and  through- 
out the  carboniferous  era,  I  have  no  doubt.  But  in  all  this  I  see 
nothing  at  variance  with  the  Mosaic  record.  Of  the  creation  of 
all  these  creatures  we  are  told  in  Genesis  ii.  1,  and  yet  more  defi- 
nitely in  Exodus  xx.  11;  "In  six  days  the  Lord  made  heaven  and 
earth,  the  sea  and  all  that  in  them  is,"  but  of  the  exact  time  of 
their  creation  we  are  told  nothing.  In  a  history  of  creation  writ- 
ten for  the  purpose  with  which  Moses  wrote,  why  should  he  mention 
them?  In  so  brief  a  history,  how  could  he  mention  them?  That 
sauria,  and  birds  and  mammals — air-breathing  animals — could  not 
have  lived  upon  the  land,  or  in  the  air,  before  the  gigantic  vegeta- 
tion of  the  carboniferous  era  had  purified  the  atmosphere  by  de- 
composing the  vast  quantity  of  carbonic  acid  it  must  have  con- 
tained, fixing  its  carbon,  and  giving  back  its  oxygen,  no  scientist 
will  question;  and  this  all  that  Moses'  history  fairly  implies. 

Part  III. — The  Creation  of  Man,  Male  and  Female. 
"  And  the  Lord  said,  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  our 
likeness,  and  let  them  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and 


THE  PENTATEUCHAL  STORY  OF  CREATION.  363 

over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  the  cattle,  and  over  all  the  earth, 
and  over  every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth  upon  the  earth.  And 
God  created  man  in  his  own  image,  in  the  image  of  God  created 
he  him ;  male  and  female  created  he  them.  And  God  blessed 
them;  and  God  said  unto  them,  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  re- 
plenish the  earth,  and  subdue  it,  and  have  dominion  over  the  fish 
of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  every  living 
thing  that  moveth  upon  the  earth.  .  .  .  And  God  saw  everything 
that  he  had  made,  and  behold  it  was  very  good.  And  there  was 
evening  and  there  was  morning,  the  sixth  day."  (Gen.  i.  26-31.) 
Such  is  the  general  account  which  Moses  gives  us  of  the  creation 
of  man.  In  chapter  ii.,  as  a  part  of  the  sad  story  of  the  introduc- 
tion of  sin  into  our  world,  he  gives  us  certain  other  particulars,  in 
his  words,  "And  the  Lord  God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the 
ground,  and  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life;  and  man 
became  a  living  soul  [literally,  a  creature  of  life  or  living  crea- 
ture.] .  .  .  And  the  Lord  God  caused  a  deep  sleep  to  fall  upon 
the  man,  and  he  slept ;  and  he  took  one  of  his  ribs,  and  closed  up 
the  flesh  instead  thereof ;  and  the  rib  which  the  Lord  God  took 
from  the  man,  made  he  a  woman,  and  brought  her  unto  the  man. 
And  the  man  said,  This  is  now  bone  of  my  bone,  and  flesh  of  my 
flesh ;  she  shall  be  called  woman,  because  she  was  taken  out  of  man. 
Therefore  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  his  mother,  and  shall 
cleave  unto  his  wife;  and  they  shall  be  one  flesh."  (Gen.  ii. 
7,  21-24.) 

I.  That  this  portion  of  the  Mosaic  record  is  to  be  understood 
as  neither  parable  nor  myth,  but  a  piece  of  plain  history,  a  record 
of  facts,  is  placed  beyond  all  doubt  by  the  way  in  which  it  is  sub- 
sequently referred  to  in  the  Scriptures.  Thus,  Paul  writes :  "  For 
the  man  is  not  of  the  woman ;  but  the  woman  of  the  man.  Neither 
was  the  man  created  for  the  woman ;  but  the  woman  for  the  man." 
(1  Cor.  xi.  8,  9.)  And  our  Lord  says,  "  Have  ye  not  read,  that  he 
which  made  them  in  the  beginning  made  them  male  and  female, 
and  said,  For  this  cause  shall  a  man  leave  father  and  mother,  and 
shall  cleave  to  his  wife ;  and  they  twain  shall  be  one  flesh  ?  Where- 
fore they  are  no  more  twain,  but  one  flesh.  What  therefore  God 
hath  joined  together,  let  not  man  put  asunder."  (Matt.  xix.  5,  6.) 
In  this  historv  of  the  creation  of  man  the  following  particulars 


364  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  QUARTERLY. 

are  clearly  set  forth,  viz.:  (1,)  That  man  was  the  last  made  of 
God's  creatures,  his  making  finishing  the  work  of  creation  in  so 
far  as  our  earth  is  concerned.  (2,)  That  he  was  made  in  the  very 
"image  and  likeness  of  God,"  and  to  him  was  given  "dominion 
over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over 
every  living  thing  that  moveth  upon  the  earth."  (3,)  That,  de- 
parting from  the  course  pursued  in  the  case  of  the  lower  animals, 
God  made  but  one  human  pair.  In  the  language  of  Moses — and 
in  this  the  language  of  Scripture  is  the  language  of  science — God 
made  "  man,  male  and  female,"  thus  securing  for  man,  in  all  com- 
ing time,  a  perfect  race-unity.  (4,)  That  God  made  man  and 
woman  separately;  the  man  first,  as  to  his  body,  "of  the  dust  of 
the  ground ; "  the  woman  afterwards,  as  to  her  body,  from  the  rib 
of  the  man;  that  thus  there  might  be  established  between  them  a 
peculiarly  intimate  relation,  expressed  by  Adam  in  his  words, 
"This  is  now  bone  of  my  bone  and  flesh  of  my  flesh." 

II.  Do  these  facts  properly  belong  to  a  sacred  history  of  crea- 
tion ?  In  attempting  to  answer  this  question,  I  would  ask  the 
reader  to  notice  (1,)  That,  without  the  account  which  Moses  gives 
us  of  man's  creation  "in  the  image  and  likeness"  of  God,  we 
could  not  understand  the  Scripture  explanation  of  the  great  pro- 
blem which  confronts  us  the  moment  we  turn  to  the  study  of 
man's  present  condition  and  his  present  relation  to  God  his  Crea- 
tor; a  problem  expressed  by  Rousseau  in  his  words,  "Our  human- 
ity is  deeply  tainted  with  some  sore  and  irrecoverable  disease." 
(2,)  The  unity  of  the  human  race  is  a  fundamental  fact  in  the  phil- 
osophy of  the  plan  of  salvation  made  known  to  us  in  Paul's  words, 
"As  by  the  offence  of  one  judgment  came  upon  all  men  to  con- 
demnation, even  so,  by  the  righteousness  of  one,  the  free  gift  came 
upon  all  men  unto  justification  of  life.  For  as  by  one  man's  dis- 
obedience many  were  made  sinners,  so  by  the  obedience  of  one 
shall  many  be  made  righteous."  (Rom.  v.  18-19.)  (3,)  "  Marriage 
was  ordained  for  the  mutual  help  of  husband  and  wife ;  for  the 
increase  of  mankind  with  a  legitimate  issue,  and  of  the  church 
with  a  holy  seed  ;  and  for  preventing  uncleanness."  {Confession 
of  Faith,  Chap,  xxiv.)  And  one  of  the  precepts  of  the  moral  law, 
as  written  by  the  finger  of  God  upon  tables  of  stone,  is  a  prohibi- 
tion of  all  disregard  of  its  sacred  obligations.     Hence  the  church 


THE  PENTATEUCHAL  STORY  OF  CREATION.  365 

has  always  recognized  the  religious  character  of  marriage.  A  re- 
cord, then,  of  the  fact  that  in  the  creation  of  man  and  woman  God 
gave  a  solemn  sanction  to  the  marriage  relation,  is  an  appropriate 
part  of  a  sacred  history  of  creation. 

III.  What  has  science  to  say  on  these  several  points  presented 
in  this  portion  of  the  Mosaic  record  % 

1.  As  to  man's  being  the  last  made  of  God's  creatures,  "The 
evidence  of  geology  has  always  been  that  among  all  the  creatures 
which  have  in  succession  been  formed  to  live  upon  the  earth  and 
enjoy  it,  man  is  the  latest  born.  This  great  fact  is  still  the  fun- 
damental truth  in  the  history  of  creation.  ...  So  far  as  we  yet 
know,  no  new  form  of  life  has  been  created  since  the  highest  form 
was  made." — Argyll's  Primeval  Man,  p.  113. 

It  is  further  worthy  of  remark  that  Moses  makes  the  outburst 
of  mammal  life  upon  the  earth  and  the  creation  of  man  two  sepa- 
rate works  of  creation  wrought  on  the  same  (the  sixth)  day.  In- 
terpreting this  as  I  have  interpreted  a  similar  record  of  the  work 
on  the  third  day,  it  would  indicate  that  these  two  works  were  in 
part  cotemporary,  i.  e.,  in  the  language  of  geology,  that  the 
closing  portion  of  the  age  of  mammals  overlapped  the  earlier  part 
of  the  age  of  man.     On  this  point  Dr.  Southall  writes : 

"  The  mammoth  was  in  Siberia  down  to  the  inauguration  of  that  cold  climate 
characteristic  of  that  region.  This  was  after  the  glacial  period  in  Europe,  probably 
at  the  close  of  the  glacial  period  in  Sweden  and  Scotland.  When  France  and  Eng- 
land were  occupied  by  the  cave-man,  Siberia  was  enjoying,  at  least  the  middle  and 
southern  portion  of  it,  a  comparatively  temperate  climate,  and  was  inhabited  by  a 
bronze-using  people,  who  were  skilful  workers  in  that  metal ;  the  mammoth,  the 
rhinoceros,  and  the  megaceros  ranging  in  its  forests." — Recent  Origin  of  Man,  p.  518. 

2.  Moses  tells  us  that  man  was  made  "in  the  image  and  like- 
ness" of  God,  and  to  him  was  given  "dominion  over  the  fish  of 
the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  every  living  thing 
that  moveth  upon  the  earth."     On  this  point  Prof.  Dana  writes : 

' '  In  the  appearance  of  man,  the  system  of  life,  in  progress  through  the  ages, 
reached  its  completion,  and  the  animal  structure  its  highest  perfection.  Another 
higher  is  not  within  the  range  of  our  conception.  For  the  vertebrate  type,  which 
began  during  the  paleozoic,  in  the  prone  or  horizontal  fish,  becomes  erect  in  man, 
and  thus  completes,  as  Agassiz  has  observed,  the  possible  changes  in  the  series  to 
its  last  term.  An  erect  body  and  an  erect  forehead  admit  of  no  step  beyond.  But 
besides  this,  man's  whole  structure  declares  his  intellectual  and  spiritual  nature. 
His  forelimbs  are  not  organs  of  locomotion,  as  they  are  in  all  other  mammalians ; 


366  THE  PRESBYTERIAN  QUARTERLY. 

they  have  passed  from  the  locomotive  to  the  cephalic  series,  being  made  to  subserve 
the  purposes  of  the  head ;  and  this  transfer  is  in  accordance  with  a  grand  law  of 
nature,  which  is  the  basis  of  grade  and  development.  The  cephalization  of  the 
animal  has  been  the  goal  of  all  progress;  and  in  man  we  mark  its  highest  possible 
triumph." — Dana's  Geology,  p.  578. 

3.  The  unity  of  the  human  race,  long  and  keenly  debated, 
must  now  be  considered  a  settled  matter  in  science.  Prof.  Hux- 
ley writes: 

' '  I  cannot  see  any  good  ground,  or  even  any  tenable  sort  of  evidence,  for  be- 
lieving that  there  is  more  than  one  species  of  man." — Origin  of  Species,  Lecture  V. 

And  the  Duke  of  Argyll : 

' '  On  this  point,  therefore,  of  the  unity  of  man's  origin,  those  who  bow  to  the 
authority  of  the  most  ancient  and  most  venerable  traditions,  and  those  who  accept 
the  most  popular  of  modern  scientific  theories,  are  found  standing  on  common 
ground  and  accepting  the  same  result. "—  Unity  of  Nature,  p.  399. 

4.  On  the  remaining  point,  viz. :  God's  making  woman  from 
the  rib  of  man,  and  instituting  the  marriage  relation,  geology, 
from  the  nature  of  the  case,  can  say  nothing.  The  sacredness  of 
the  marriage  relation,  and  so  of  the  family,  all  history  declares  to 
be  fundamental  to  civilization  in  its  highest  form,  and  with  equal 
distinctness  declares  polygamy  to  be  fatal  to  national  prosperity. 
The  marriage  relation,  such  as  Moses  describes  as  instituted  of 
God,  is  unknown  among  savages.  It  is  only  among  the  most 
highly  civilized  nations,  and  as  the  result  of  that  civilization,  that 
woman  has  recovered  the  rank  and  station  which,  according  to 
Moses,  God  gave  her  in  the  beginning.  These  facts  furnish  a 
good  and  sufficient  reason  for  departure  from  the  common  order 
of  creation  in  the  case  of  woman.  Certainly  the  story  is  a  very 
strange  invention,  if  it  be  an  invention,  on  the  part  of  a  "  semi- 
barbarous  Hebrew,"  as  Prof.  Huxley  would  have  us  believe  that 
Moses  was.  In  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  "  the  invention  is 
more  incredible  than  the  fact." 

Conclusion. 
1.  I  have  now  gone  through  with  the  history  of  creation  given 
us  in  the  opening  portion  of  the  Book  of  Genesis,  continually 
bearing  in  mind  the  nature  of  that  history  as  sacred,  and  not  secu- 
lar or  profane ;  and  guided  in  my  interpretation  of  the  record  by 
the  principle  recognized  by  jurists  as  well  as  critics,  that  all  docu- 


THE  PENTATEUCH AL  STORY  OF  CREATION.  367 

rnents  must  be  interpreted  with  an  especial  reference  to  the  object 
with  which  they  have  been  written.  A  disregard  of  this  plain 
principle  of  interpretation,  if  I  mistake  not,  has  given  rise  to  much 
of  the  apparent  discrepancy  between  Genesis  and  geology,  which 
has  perplexed  christian  scientists,  and  given  occasion  for  such  cavil- 
ling remarks,  as  that  of  Prof.  Huxley,  quoted  at  the  opening  of 
this  article. 

2.  Respecting  some  of  the  facts  stated  by  Moses,  science  has 
nothing  to  say,  and  this  for  the  good  and   sufficient  reason  that 
they  are  beyond  its  purview — e.  g.,  the  original  creation  of  matter, 
and  the  peculiar  manner  in  which  woman  was  made.     Of  many 
of  the  facts  ascertained  by  science,  Moses  says  nothing  for  a  simi- 
lar reason;  e.  g.,  the  time  at  which  organic  life  first  appeared  upon 
the  earth,  and  the  creation  of  the  lower  orders  of  plants  and  ani- 
mals.    This  is  just  what,  in  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  we  have 
a  right  to  expect;  just  what  we  find  to  be  true  of  the  Bible  story 
throughout.     In  the  Scripture  story  of  Adam,  we  are  told  of  his 
creation,  his  probation  in  Eden,  and  his  fall — all  events  which  must 
have  occurred  during  the  first  years,  possibly  the  first  year,  of 
his  life ;  but  of  the  remainder  of  that  life  of  nine  hundred  and 
thirty  years  nothing  is  said.     Of  the  first  eighty  years  of  Moses' 
life  the  Scriptures  tell  us  of  nothing  except  the  wondrous  provi- 
dence which  in  his  early  infancy  placed  him  in  the  household  of 
Pharaoh,  and  then  of  his  flight  from  Egypt  when  forty  years  of 
age.     Of  the  histories  of  Egypt  and  Babylon  and  Rome  the  Scrip- 
tures tell  us  something,  where  those  histories  touch  upon  the  his- 
tory of  redemption,  and  what  they  do  tell  us  is  being  confirmed 
in  a  most  remarkable  manner  by  modern  research ;  but  of  all  the 
remainder  of  the  histories  of  those  empires  they  have  nothing  to 
say.     Because  of  this,  no  reasonable  man  imagines  any  discrepancy 
between  the  Bible  history  and  the  histories  of  Manetho  or  Berosus 
or  Livy. 

3.  In  the  Pentateuchal  story  of  creation  certain  facts  are  stated, 
viz.:  (1),  the  creation  by  God,  in  the  beginning,  of  the  heaven  and 
the  earth;  (2),  the  chaotic  condition  of  the  earth  when  God  began 
the  work  of  evoking  order  and  organization;  (3),  the  entrance  of 
light,  and  the  succession  of  day  and  night  before  the  sun  could  be 
seen;  (4),  the  separation  of  the  waters  under  the  heavens  from 


«5t>8  THE  PRESBY'I  ERIAN  QUARTERLY. 

those  above  it ;  (5),  the  emergence  of  the  land  from  beneath  the 
surface  of  the  waters  ;  (6),  a  gigantic  outburst  of  vegetation  upon 
the  land ;  (7),  the  distinct  appearance  of  the  sun,  moon  and  stars, 
the  unveiling  of  nature's  great  clock  by  which  the  passage  of  time 
has  been  noted  ever  since;  8),  an  era  of  gigantic  sea-monsters 
and  birds  (flyers)  ;  (9),  an  era  of  gigantic  mammals ;  followed 
immediately  by,  (10),  the  creation  of  man,  male  and  female,  as 
the  last  and  crowning  work  of  creation  ;  and  then,  (11),  God's  rest 
from  his  work  of  creation,  a  rest  which  continues  to  the  present 
day.  This  is,  in  substance,  all  that  Moses  says,  and  it.  is  all  that  it 
was  appropriate  for  him  to  say  in  a  sacred  history  of  creation,  all 
that  it  was  possible  for  him  to  say  in  so  brief  a  history  as  that  he 
lias  given  us.  Science,  especially  geology,  has  made  rapid  and 
substantial  progress  in  the  last  fifty  years,  and  in  our  day  for  the 
first  time  is  competent  to  testify  on  some  of  the  points  mentioned 
above ;  and  now  that  its  "  tongue  is  unloosed,"  its  testimony  distinctly 
confirms  the  Pentateuchal  story  as  summarized  above  in  every 
particular ;  and  I  would  ask  the  readers  especially  to  notice  that 
it  is  not  geological  theory,  bat  well  ascertained  geological  facts, 
which  confirm  the  statements  of  fact  made  by  Moses. 

4.  On  the  one  point  which  yet  remains  for  consideration,  viz. : 
the  claim  which  the  Pentateuchal  story  of  creation  makes  to  be  a 
revelation  from  God,  I  cannot  do  better  than  quote  the  words  of 
Hon.  Win.  E.  Gladstone  : 

' '  How  canie  Moses  ...  to  possess  knowledge  which  natural  science  has  only 
within  the  present  century  for  the  first  time  dug  out  of  the  bowels  of  the  earth  ? 
It  is  surely  impossible  to  avoid  the  conclusion,  first,  that  either  he  was  gifted  with 
faculties  passing  all  human  experieu'v,  or  else  his  knowledge  was  divine.  The  first 
branch  of  the  alternative  is  truly  nominal  and  unreal.  We  know  the  sphere  within 
which  human  inquiry  toils.  We  know  the  heights  to  which  the  intuitions  of  genius 
may  soar.  We  know  that  in  certain  cases  genius  anticipates  science ;  as  Homer,  for 
example,  in  his  account  of  the  conflict  of  the  four  winds  in  the  sea-storm.  But 
even  in  these  anticipations,  marvellous  and,  so  to  speak,  imperial  as  they  are,  genius 
cannot  escape  from  an  inexorable  law.  It  must  have  materials  of  sense  and  expe- 
rience to  work  with,  and  a  pou  sto  from  which  to  take  its  flight ;  and  genius  can 
no  more  tell,  apart  from  some  at  least  of  the  results  attained  by  inquiry,  what  are 
the  contents  of  the  crust  of  the  earth,  than  it  could  square  the  circle  or  annihilate 
a  fact.  So  stands  a  plea  for  a  revelation  of  truth  from  God,  a  plea  only  to  be  met 
by  questioning  its  possibility,  that  is,  ...  .  by  suggesting  that  a  being  able  to  make 
man  is  unable  to  communicate  with  the  creature  he  has  made." — Order  of  Creation, 

Geo.  D.  Armstrong. 


syrocuse,  N.   Y. 
Stockton,  Colif. 


Date  Due 

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-  j.  -  aar 

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PRINTED      IN  U.  S.  A. 

BS651 .A73 

The  Pentateuchal  story  of  creation. 


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